A brand new idle clicker sport has overtaken Banana on the Steam charts. That’s Bongo Cat, revealed by Irox Video games, which takes the final thought of Banana and the remainder of the style and tweaks it a bit of. You don’t actually play Bongo Cat, essentially; the lovable little kitty lives as an overlay in your display screen, tapping away as you press buttons in your keyboard. On occasion, you’ll unlock a treasure chest that’s bought a shock inside — a hat on your cat, maybe.
Like with Banana, the unlockable gadgets are sellable on the Steam market; relying on rarity, the market units worth. Many of the gadgets are promoting for a number of cents, however some hats have crept up into the tens of {dollars}. It’s not clearly as wild of a market as Banana was in its heyday, the place bananas have been promoting for lots of of {dollars}, however there’s a market there. Banana was fashionable as a result of, as Banana group member Hery instructed epicgamejourney, it’s principally an “infinite cash glitch.” You pay nothing, however unlock gadgets which have some worth. Bongo Cat definitely has the identical enchantment in that manner, nevertheless it’s additionally only a cuter expertise. Past unlocking gadgets you may promote, the hats are cute. I need them to embellish the cat who sits on the backside of my display screen. As Marcel Zurawka, Irox Video games’ managing director, instructed epicgamejourney in an interview, “individuals like cats, individuals like cosmetics.”
“I get despatched tons of screenshots of individuals customizing their cats to the issues they’re doing proper now,” Zurawka mentioned. “Whereas the demo was working somebody performed a Building Simulator with the development helmet.” He continued: “Noticed numerous critiques of people that mentioned ‘thought it’s like banana nevertheless it’s really very nice’ which provides me hope in constructing one thing extra significant.”
Zurawka mentioned he was impressed by Banana and the way the group was funding its sport by way of the Steam market. Cats have been an apparent selection. Then another person threw out utilizing Bongo Cat. Bongo Cat is an web icon created in 2018 that took off; it was created by a Twitter use named @StrayRogue, then edited so as to add bongos by one other particular person referred to as @DitzyFlama. There have been a ton of iterations on it since then. There are a number of claims to the Bongo Cat title that have been issued earlier than the web meme, however epicgamejourney was unable to find any since.
“Sophisticated query, the legislation aspect of it particularly internationally is tremendous advanced,” Zurawka mentioned. “We mentioned that internally so much.” Zurawaka declined to remark additional on copyright.
The opposite concern gamers have — not simply with Bongo Cat, however with Banana and the like — is whether or not there may very well be some type of rip-off component, akin to NFTs. Zurawka mentioned that’s not the case. It’s simply cats with hats. Nobody has to take part within the market; it’s there if you would like it, however straightforward to disregard if not. Concerning allegations that it’s a keylogger of some kind, Zurawka mentioned he made positive the sport didn’t require networking for “precisely this motive.”
“I additionally don’t obfuscate the code and everybody can simply verify it with a little bit of coding data,” he mentioned. “The sport tracks nothing and simply counts the quantity up, that’s it. Fashionable antivirus btw would flag it right away if I might log or ship the keys you sort out. If anybody has nonetheless issues I’m all the time open to reply any query concerning that.”
Bongo Cat stands out among the many remainder of idle clicker video games — there’s a ton! — as a result of it’s all the time on, in a position to sit on the display screen with out taking on an excessive amount of house. Whereas different idle clicker video games have rushed to money in on the craze, Bongo Cat goes a bit of bit additional as a result of it’s not simply sitting within the background; you may see it tapping together with you. (When enjoying Banana, most individuals simply hold it closed within the taskbar, for example. You overlook it’s there.) Zurawka mentioned it may be used as a pomodoro timer of types, too: The treasures pop up each half-hour, so you should use that to remain on high of duties.
“I feel it was an explosive mixture with a good suggestion (productiveness device/desktop companion), cute cats and merchandise drops,” he added.
